1. Field of the Invention
The instant invention relates to a high density interconnect between a printed circuit board and a multi-conductor cable having socket contacts within a mating plug. The connector has a right-angled connection to the printed circuit board and an interfacial seal between the connector mounting face and a mounting bulkhead.
2. Prior Art
There is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,351,894 to Kinkaid a right-angled connector for mounting on a printed circuit board and for interconnection to a socket plug. This connector however doesn't allow for high-density interconnections in that there is only a single row of contacts mounted to the printed circuit board. If the contacts cannot be stacked vertically from the printed circuit board, more real estate on the printed circuit board is required for interconnections.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,186,988 to Kobler FIG. 10, and U.S. Pat. No. 4,193,654 FIG. 3 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,225,209 FIG. 1, to Hughes show an alternate design for staggering contacts in order to increase the use of printed circuit board space.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,491,376 to Gladd et al. shows a right-angled mount connector for mounting on a printed circuit board having solid pin contacts wherein two pins are laterally aligned within the connector, one above the other, each pin then bent downwardly for interconnection to the printed circuit board. In Gladd however, the pins have lateral projections which scive the interior cavity walls upon insertion, and embed within the walls. Thus, the pin contacts have no means for being accurately placed within the cavities. Furthermore, once in place, it is difficult to maintain the pin contacts in a fixed axial position, as the contacts have no positive stops.
In Gladd et al., the pin contacts are bent downwardly into longitudinal slots for receipt into detents. Using detents for the placement of the pin contacts allows the contacts to move with the respective slots, becoming misaligned with respect to the printed circuit board.
Japanese application Ser. No. 59-161510 published Mar. 1, 1986 utilizes a plurality of terminals formed from tamped and formed contacts. This connector however, does not have a means for accurately locating each terminal end in each respective row with respect to the mating face 11. Furthermore in the Japanese application, the connector includes shoulders in the respective channels for maintaining the contacts in proper alignment. The die tooling for this type of draw molding application is expensive to purchase and to operate.